Helping our veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

Friday

From the Civil War to the Vietnam War, it has been called nostalgia, shell shock, soldier’s heart and battle fatigue, but today the diagnosis sounds far more clinical: post-traumatic stress disorder.

From the Civil War to the Vietnam War, it has been called nostalgia, shell shock, soldier’s heart and battle fatigue, but today the diagnosis sounds far more clinical: post-traumatic stress disorder.

On Nov. 20, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Veterans’ Services and held an eight-hour conference on educating and caring for the mental health needs of veterans and their families.

More than 100 mental health-care providers and educators came together to discuss treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, brain trauma sustained in the line of duty, depression and suicide intervention.

“As a culture, we tend to celebrate the upside of conflict,” said MSPP President Nicholas Covino in his opening remarks to the symposium, calling PTSD “a major mental health issue” that has been neglected since the Vietnam era.

PTSD, an anxiety disorder that can plague soldiers returning from combat, is a debilitating condition that can occur after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened.

Thomas Kelley, secretary of the state veterans’ office, lost one eye while serving as a U.S. Navy lieutenant in Vietnam. A recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military honor— Kelley, 70, who had addressed the audience, later said mental health-care workers are not always equipped to treat the needs of returning soldiers.

“I’m trying to let people know when men and women come out of the service, especially if they’ve been in combat in a war zone, that they’re going to come back as a changed person,” said Kelley, a retired captain. “They’ve been under stress and they’re re-entering a new environment, and our job, all of us, should [be to] try to keep that stress from becoming a disorder.”

Since October 2001, more than 1.7 million soldiers have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. Of them, nearly 280,000 have been sent back for at least one more tour of duty, according to the National Center for PSTD, a research arm of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

Meanwhile, veterans affairs officials said there has also been a resurgence of PTSD in Vietnam veterans. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, there has been a 59 percent increase in Vietnam veterans seeking counseling, the center reported.

Navy Reserve Commander Marybeth O’Sullivan, 56, of Brockton, said support might come from people other than health-care professionals, such as a civilian neighbor or classmate.

“It’s the everyday person in the community who is going to be empowered — that needs be empowered — to help with reintegration,” she said.

O’Sullivan, a nurse with a 24-year military career, said she had “a vested interest” in the conference. Her son and son-in-law have served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Referring to tales from Homer’s “Iliad,” O’Sullivan spoke for an hour about the psychological consequences of war.

“As long as we’ve had war, there’s been PTSD,” said O’Sullivan, who spoke of the way Greek war hero Achilles reacted — smearing himself with ash and fasting — to death of his friend, Patroclus.

She said the general population might be scared to approach the issue.

“Because of what they may remember — and maybe even feel some guilt — feeling and thinking about Vietnam vets who were not getting any help,” O’Sullivan said.

Post-traumatic stress disorder was given a name in the late 1980s, more than a decade after the end of the Vietnam conflict, she said.

In addition to PTSD, O’Sullivan also talked to mental health-care workers about mild traumatic brain injury, a type of head injury that 20 percent of military personnel reported to have been exposed to in combat.

“Getting out of the military is a tough enough challenge,” O’Sullivan said. “Getting out of the military after seeing some stuff — bad stuff — and doing some rough stuff? It’s a whole other experience.”

Holly Marston, 29, has seen what the trauma of war can do to a loved one. Her father served in Vietnam. Now, she is one of seven outreach coordinators for Mass SAVE, Statewide Advocacy for Veterans’ Empowerment.

The group defines its mission as suicide prevention and benefits advocacy. Marston said some veterans are “not getting the help they need.”

“That could put them on the path to a better life,” she said.

O’Sullivan said one of the obstacles is that more than 40 percent of those in the military experiencing mental health problems refuse treatment due to a fear that seeking treatment could hurt their image, ruin their military career or limit civilian job opportunities.

Covino said mental health professionals have an increased responsibilities but the clinical expertise is insufficient.

The school plans to have additional conferences in March and June to discuss PTSD and the effects on families.

“We have 1.6 million returning veterans and [an] equally large number of family members that are going to be touched by this,” Covino said. “This is a new culture — there are values, [morals], customs, special needs that mental health practitioners really need to understand.”

For more information about the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, visit www.mspp.com. To learn more about veterans services in Massachusetts, visit www.mass.gov/veterans.

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